October 31st, 2002 14:15 hours CST currently listening to: "Leave Them All Behind" by Ride

I'm not wearing any underwear today.

Happy Halloween everyone.

October 30th, 2002 09:05 hours CST currently listening to: "Crash Landing" by Monster Movie

Score!!! I managed to get three copies of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City last night. It was the 4th place I tried. Toys 'R' Us, EB Games and Target were all sold out. I couldn't even get the phrase out of my mouth by the time the clerk would say "sold out". Luckily, Circuit City had a truckload. I mean there were at least 15 copies still on the shelf when I grabbed my three. I was buying one for DJ and Dave as well. I was so happy. I didn't want to go home without that thing. And believe it or not, I didn't play it. I'm waiting for tonight when we meet at Dave's place. He just got his PS2 two nights ago. I can't wait.

On more lame news, I was trying to get some camo pants for a costume for work tomorrow. Army Navy over on Lincoln is only open until 5 PM. What the hell is that about? So, I think I'm gonna have to go with my leather pants instead. Oh well. I don't really see myself in camo pants again unless it's a costume anyway, so this works out for the best.

Watched Sexy Beast again last night. Dave was gonna give it back to DJ but I snagged it. Hot damn, that's a great movie. One of the few movies in English that I actually watch subtitled. The accents are so thick and some of the lines are so fast that you miss a bunch of funny stuff if you don't have the subtitles on. At least I do, anyway. I'm debating whether or not I should get rid of cable. Is $50 worth it? I only watch a few shows that I always tape, because these days I'm rarely at home when they're on. I watch That 70's show on Tuesdays. Wednesday is Star Trek Enterprise. Thursday is Friends, Will and Grace and ER. Sunday is Simpsons, Futurama and King of the Hill. I used to watch more stuff back when I was into wrestling and when Dark Angle and X-Files were still on. I miss That 80's Show as well. That never got the credit it deserved. I dunno. You make the call. It's only $50. Maybe it will be better if I start watching stuff on comedy central again. One thing is for sure; I never sit around flipping channels. If I'm in front of my TV, I'm either playing a game, or watching a movie or a show that I taped. Bleh. I just wish we didn't have to use stupid cable boxes and I could actually use the remote that came with my TV. My TV is nothing but a monitor when you think about it. It's just for the video of whatever device I have turned on.

This entree is getting kind of boring. How about this....... I'm wearing really tight pants today and it's amazingly obvious when I'm thinking about a certain someone.

October 28th, 2002 09:45 hours CST currently listening to: "Cico Buff" by the Cocteau Twins

I meant to do an update on Friday but I never got around to it. Thursday night, Ari and Lisa and I went to see Gorey Stories, which is a musical based on several Edward Gorey books and was put on by Blind Faith Theatre. BFT is run by two people that I work with; Nick Minas and Tabitha Pederson. We had such a good time. All three of us had had crappy days that day and needed a good laugh. We certainly got one. Nick came up to me the next day and said "we want you to come EVERY night." Once again, my loud-as-hell laughing paid off. DJ said later that I'm a productions wet dream for a press night. Anyway, the musical was great. The costumes were good. A few of the people had really impressive voices. My friend Natalie (who Ari knew as well) was playing violin.

Friday took forever. Got home and took a quick nap. Lisa came over and we got all dressed up for Krissy's Halloween party. This turned out to be a minor disaster. We picked Ben up around 10. We were already running about an hour behind schedule. We took Lakeshore Drive to the highway. The instructions to get to Krissy's were all based off of taking 94 out of the city and not 90. Well, due to all the construction, we ended up taking 90 because we couldn't find an exit for 94. So this completely fucked the instructions up. To make a very long story short, it took us 2 and a half hours to get there when it should have taken 45 minutes. We arrived right as the cops were making their second appearance that night. The booze was gone and Mike was being forced to put out the bonfire in the back yard. We found Krissy, Kaite, Mike and Mark. Mark's costume cracked me up. Krissy and Kaite looked rad. Katie looked so disappointed when I told her that we were leaving. We had planned on leaving at 1:00 anyway and it was already 12:45. Ben had to work the next day and Lisa had to be downtown at 7 AM to pick up a friend from the train station. We stopped at a gas station for gas and snacks, which really picked up our moods quite a bit. Especially mine. I'm such a blood sugar slave. Gimme some day old chocolate covered donuts and some orange juice and I become a teddy bear.

Saturday I ran errands and then met up with a bunch of folks for Kim's 31st birthday dinner at Club Lucky. DJ, Jeff, Kim, Mary, Josh, Natalie, Jennifer, Matt and Phil were all in attendance; be it a few minutes or the whole dinner. It was such a good time. Three bottles of Charaz. Or as Kim would later pronounce it: Charaaaaaaaaazzzzz. She got drunk. It was grand. They had the special that I fell in love with the last time I was there. Jeff ordered it too. A grilled Tuna steak with grilled vegetables all in a balsamic vinegar sauce. It was divine. Afterwards we went to Jewel to get pumpkins and booze. Met up at Mary and Phil's place for horror movies. Got through 3/4 of C.H.U.D. and switched to Evil Dead II. Then watched the end of Halloween 4 on AMC. Watched the first chunk of Halloween 5 and then I took off. Kim, Jennifer and Mary did some really great pumpkins.

Sunday I did a ton of laundry and went to the Chicago Music Exchange to get my Jazzmaster worked on yet again. The bridge is sinking when I rest my hand on it. It's driving me nuts. Wandered around CB2 for a while and looked at bed frames. Ben came to practice and showed us the completed promo kits. We have the best promo kit in the world. And he made buttons!!! He gave them to us on Friday night. It was the surprise that he had been hinting about for weeks. I was completely blown away. They're white with "airiel loves you" on them. Love is even in red. They're fantastic. I swear, that boy.

October 24th, 2002 13:20 hours CST currently listening to: "Hummingbirds" by Venus Hum

The show last night was so great! We arrived around 8:45 at the Double Door. I was really nervous because the turnout was really low. We didn't know anything about Venus Hum, but WOW, they were fantastic. What a pleasant surprise. They started at 9:00 on the dot and rocked the entire time. Even though there was only about 30-40 people there. The band is comprised of 2 men that run computers and keyboards, one of whom looks like Robin Guthrie. Their singer is this wonderfully energetic girl named Annette. She reminded us of Bjork, but was way way way cuter. Wonderful voice. The music was very danceable, but I didn't want to be the one guy in the middle of the floor dancing, so we stayed to the sides and head bobbed.

Sing-sing came on and opened with Tegan and just rocked from there on out. They all wore completely white outfits and I couldn't help but make some joke about the Cheesecake Factory. All their servers have to wear completely white outfits and generally make themselves look really horrible. Sing-sing didn't look so bad. But maybe that's because they're all hot and you really can't stop looking at Lisa O'Neil's exposed midsection while she sang and danced around on stage. They also played "Far Away From Love", "Command", "Panda Eyes" (which I totally called out), "Hit and Run", "Feels Like Summer", "You Don't Know", 2 new songs, "I do" and closed with "I See You", which was outstanding. Despite the crowd being so small, we all made up for it with extra energetic applause. There were these 2 incredibly stoned and drunk Latin fellows in front of us that were a bit hard to ignore. One started dancing and swaying backwards and Ben had to lightly push him back into his spot. He turned around and looked like he was about to throw down, but apologized and continued dancing. It happened one other time, but thankfully no altercation took place.

Afterwards, Lisa and Emma went to the back to do a little meet and greet, which was unexpected and really nice. I remember being so nervous to talk to her when she played in Lush, but now she's all smiles and compliments. It's nice that both bands can play such energetic shows at a place like Chicago with such a disappointingly (in my opinion) small crowd. It reminds me of how the Stone Roses started out. Both her and Lisa signed one of my posters. Ben and Lisa and I grabbed a ton of them. Hah. Now I have Lisa and Emma looking at me from my desk. Well, Lisa is. Emma is staring off into space like she's being stalked. Went home and fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

It's really nice to wake up in the morning, step on a scale and be 5 pounds lighter than what you were expecting to weigh. That rules. Makes me feel better about scarfing down the greasy pizza that my office bought us for lunch. Mmmmmmmmmm. Ok, it's about 10 degrees in this office. I'm actually typing this with my fingerless gloves on. I'm about to go into the server room to warm up. Sheesh.

October 23rd, 2002 10:08 hours CST currently listening to: "Panda Eyes" by Sing-sing

Wow. Tired and I have a headache. Advil, do your thing.

So, I'm lying in bed the other night and I hear my downstairs neighbor having sex. It was really hard to make out. I can't hear through the floor all that well, although it sounded like it was coming up through the wall, really. The noise from outside was kinda loud, but I heard lots of "ohhhhhhh baby, yeah" and "mmmmmmmmm". Then here's the freaky part: afterwards there were several distinct "get the fuck off of me!" and a lot of rumbling noises. Either it was gettin rough in a kinky way, or it was a fight. Weirder thing was, after about 20 minutes of this, it was back to "ohhhhh baby". Crazy.

I'm really excited about going to see Sing-sing tonight. Ahhhh Emma. Someday you will be mine. I'm really curious to see what they sound like live. I have this weird feeling that there won't be a lot of people there. The album wasn't very well promoted and from what I remember, came out in England well over two years ago? I highly recommend it. It's in regular rotation in my mp3 list at work.

What else. Lisa almost got a Mustang bass last night on Ebay. This guy, who wasn't involved in the auction at all, came in with 3 second to go and bought it out from under her. There are more out there. Hopefully the one she gets will be a competition model, with racing stripes. Practice was pretty good last night, despite it being short due to the ebay antics. Owen and Lisa were cracking up at me because I was making kissy faces at one of his cats. Maybe I thought I was doing it in my head and didn't realize that I was actually doing it. This cat in question has this little dark patch around his lower lip, so it looks like his mouth is always pursed. Eh, whatever.

I have so much shit going on right now. Tonight - Sing-sing. Thursday - Gorey Stories. Friday - Party at Krissy's. Saturday - birthday dinner for Kim. Sunday - practice. Monday - nothing. Tuesday - practice. Next Wednesday - possible GTA III: Vice City release party or a show at the Fireside. Next Thursday - All Hallows Eve celebration and show at the Empty Bottle. Next Friday - nothing, hopefully. Next Saturday - Party and Jeff and Kim's. Great Scott.

October 21st, 2002 08:55 hours CST currently listening to: "Oil of Angels" by The Cocteau Twins

Weekend. Didn't do much on Friday. Had dinner with Rachel. Caught up on gossip. It's nice to see her glowing again. Poor thing has been through some rough times. Lula's roasted turkey sandwich did me just right yet again. Went home and watched Vampire Princess Myu tapes. Hadn't watched those in years.

Slept in late on Saturday. Lisa and I went shopping for Halloween stuff. We drove up to this place up on Demster, which was freaking awesome. It's this huge Halloween outlet store. Nobody was there and we got tons of stuff, which was funny because all we had on the list was "white face paint". Came back down to the city proper and got lunch at Pick Me Up. Stepped into the Chicago Music Exchange so she could play a Mustang bass. They have this '76 competition model in this great orange paint finish. It's about 15 hundred though and is pretty beat up. She tried one of the others there and really liked it. She has really small hands, so this would be the bass for her. It felt to me like I was playing a mandolin. It's that small. But she wears it well. Fender just re-released the Mustang bass and the competition guitar. Why they didn't re-release the bass in competition form, I don't know. Those racing stripes are the shit. The guitar comes in lake placid blue, which is my favorite fender solid color scheme. For only $500, I'm REALLY thinking of getting one.

We went to Ragstock and got more Halloween stuff. I can't wait. Halloween rocks. Went to the Abbey Pub for a crazy-ass show. Tracy and the Plastics was first; this really cute girl from New York who sort of half sang, half spoke through her songs and then in-between the songs she talked to herself on a recorded tape of herself. It was really fun to watch. I can't remember the second group, but they were my favorite. Three girls that were sexy as hell. Even covered the Cars' "Just What I Needed". What were they called? Arrgghh that's driving me nuts. Chicks on Speed were third, and were a big flop, in my opinion. Couldn't understand a word they said or sang and their act just seemed really tired and boring. Didn't stick around for Peaches.

Met up with Ben and Lisa for breakfast at Zephyr. Lisa had a royally nasty omelet. For future reference boys and girls, AVOID the JAZZ OMELET. It's really gross. Went to guitar center to see if they had the reissue Mustang's in stock, but they didn't. Not only that, but all three guys behind the guitar accessories desk didn't even know that the Mustangs were even available. That's Guitar Center for you. Way to keep up with the times, boys. Didn't have the VOX wah pedal that I was looking for either. Mine has some busted wiring and I need to get it replaced. They make one now with an external power supply. I miss being able to do my watery Julian Swayles guitar sounds. *pout*

Practice was good. We pulled out Stratosphere and it went over really well. Lisa has been working on that one with Nick and it shows. Makes me happy. Somehow I screwed up my neck on Saturday night, so we ended practice a little early. I went home and camped out on the couch with my new More Red Meat book. My neck was really hurting, so I actually put it down and watched Starship Trooper instead. God damn, Denise Richards can be a total horse at times.

Wow, where did that come from?

October 18th, 2002 14:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Suckling the Mendor" by The Cocteau Twins

It doesn't feel like Friday. Maybe it's because my workflow has been sporadic and sparse. I've done a lot of server work and haven't been at my desk as much. Maybe it's because I don't have any major plans this weekend. Having dinner with Rachel tonight. It's time we caught up on our gossip. Might be going to the Abbey Pub tonight. That's up in the air. Might be going to Songs: Ohia at the Empty Bottle tomorrow night. That's up in the air too. I know I need to get my costumes finished. I also need to get my Vox wah pedal replaced once my paycheck kicks in.

Ben and Lisa and I all met up at the Hungry Brain. That's where airiel is playing in November. It's such a cute bar! Really neat random seating. Couches on the stage. I'm a little worried about the electrical access. I only saw one power strip up there. I had three beers and got my stomach a bit queasy. They have an Arkanoid machine in the back by the bathrooms. If I had had quarters left after doing laundry that night, I would have disappeared.

October 17th, 2002 09:05 hours CST currently listening to: "Taurus Moaner" by The Charlatans UK

It's on. Airiel is playing it's first show in Chicago. Check it out.

October 14th, 2002 11:20 hours CST currently listening to: "Empty Words" by Bowery Electric

*sigh* what a lovely weekend. Thursday night was Lisa's birthday party. I arrived before the family members left. Didn't get to meet her dad, but I met her mom. It ended up being a nice little turnout. Rachel and Hans showed up. As did Mark. Got to talk to them all for quite a while. Nick, the bass player for the Blue Man Group and also Lisa's bass couch was there. He and I blabbed for what seemed like forever about the weird instruments they play in the pit for Blue Man Group. He plays a weird, 10 string thing called "the stick". It's part bass, part guitar. It's upright and really thin. He's invited me and Lisa to come up to the pit during a performance!!! We get to wear black ninja gear and watch them play!!! I can't wait.

Friday I stayed in and nursed my sinuses. Watched the first three Friday the 13th's. Damn, those are great movies. All of them have the same "somebody jumps out of somewhere and grabs somebody" ending. It's such a great staple. I think the ending to part 2 is the best. Simply because it follows that scene where Giny puts on Mrs. Vorhees' sweater. Good god, what would it take to be THAT level headed when being chased by a maniac with a pitchfork. You go, girl. Also watched Return of the Evil Dead Part II. Holy fucking shit is that move terrible. I watched it about a dozen times one spring break. We were in Grand Cayman and it was raining a whole bunch. Yeesh.

Met up with Lisa for breakfast on Saturday. She called me at around 9:00 with a freakish amount of energy. We went to Kitch Kitchen and had some really great eggs. Dropped her off and went to the recycling center over in Pulaski Park. Ran few errands and then came back home and took a nap. Lisa came over later for some more horror goodness. We called Ben and Michael to come over but neither could. We watched Blood: the Last Vampire and The Serpent and the Rainbow. That might very well be my favorite Wes Craven film next to A Nightmare on Elm Street. I love Bill Pullman.

Lisa and I met up at Lula for breakfast on Sunday. That place was freakishly busy. We discussed when to setup our first show at the Hungry Brain. We're going to shoot for the 2nd Tuesday in November. I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. Practice was so-so. So-so because I'm still getting over this cold and I had a headache. But we now have Kiss Me Slowly at a performable level. It's so cool now. I love it. Went to DJ's after practice. He bought me a pizza for reformatting and setting up his computer. He kept trying to make me shoot food out my nose by making up lyrics along to the melodies of the different songs from Super Mario Bros. He was doing scat lyrics during the underground song. Man it was funny.

Holy fucking shit!!!! I just found out that Kim got a job at Marshall Fields!!!! She's in charge of all the visuals on the floor where we eat sushi! Oh I'm so proud of her!!!

October 10th, 2002 08:15 hours CST currently listening to: "Birthday" by the Sugar Cubes

I'm almost over this cold. I feel way better, but still have to get the rest of the crap out. Bleh. Spiffy weather today. No jacket required, but still long pants weather. Cibo Matto rocked my socks the whole way to work.

Before I took off last week for that class, Dave and I dismantled this freak of a computer that we dubbed "the fridge". Jonas had built this machine back when he worked at art.com and then brought it here during his tenure as sys admin before I took over. This thing is the Frankenstein's Monster of computers. Here's the breakdown: PII 550 mHz, 512 megs of ram, 2 IDE hard drives, 7 scsi drives, two power supplies and 4 fans. This thing was a surgical nightmare. One of the two power supplies had no switch, so to power cycle it, you had to pull the damn plug out. There was a severe lack of mounting space for the drives, so the cage the held the IDE drives was lashed to the chassis by use of three plastic zip ties. The scsi drives where mounted here and there, with three of them stacked on top of one another, but separated by paper plates. Paper fucking plates! I kept the main hardware but threw out the chassis. It was too gross to keep around. It's like the way Kim described flushing a fish down a toilet. "Sorry Fluffy, but mommy is bored with you. **flush**"

Here are the pics: fridge01, fridge02, fridge03, fridge04, fridge01. Like the way I threw Dave's ass in that third one? Yeah, thought so. One I get it rebuilt in a nicer case, I'm gonna me it into a giant MP3 server. Word.

I also took some pics out of my window just to make you poor cubicle dwellers jealous. Window01, Window02, Window03, Window04.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 9th, 2002 11:05 hours CST currently listening to: "The MP" by The Album Leaf

Despite the sinus pressure and the cough, I think I'm on the mend. I'm waiting for the advil to kick in right now. My nose feels like someone is stepping on it. I had a funny conversation yesterday with Andrea about whether or not you should take drugs when you're sick. We're both avid followers of the "GET ME SOME FUCKING COLD MEDICATION" group.

Had a wonderful night with Lisa last night. Since I was sick, she graciously offered to get me some groceries on her way home from work. She came over and we watched the end of Night of the Living Dead. We made some soup and then watched Dawn on the Dead. People, she has her own copy of that movie. This is a standard I shall apply to all of my new friends from now on. You must own a copy of at least one George Romero film. Otherwise, you're dead to me. Get it? Dead to me? I'm hilarious!!!! While we watched it, we carved jack-o-lanterns on the living room floor. We had garbage bags all over for the guts. You know you're getting older when the sensation of scooping out pumpkin guts with your bare hands isn't as appealing as it once was. Maybe it was because I'd been dealing with my own snot for three days and didn't want to now feel something else's snot. Or rather, something that felt like snot. An orange, snot-like substance. With seeds.

Had a strange dream about Hannibal Lecter this morning before I woke up. Also woke up before my alarm went off, which a rare occurrence. Realized that I was feeling better than yesterday, so that was ok. Got a nice, long letter from Ri, who I haven't really talked to in a while. It's nice to just do long emails instead of chatting sometimes. Anyway, off to work. Or rather, off to pretend I'm working on something.

October 7th, 2002 14:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Me and My Friend" by Sing-Sing

I'm wearing my first pair of contacts since 1997. Feels weird. But I can see. It's certainly a nice change of pace to be able to see to the sides, without the giant, black bars of my frames. Damn, those things are thick.

Weekend was so-so. Woke up on Saturday with a sore throat that has now blossomed into a full fledged head cold. Stayed in on Saturday night and worked on drum parts. Restrung my Jazzmaster as well. Watched all the Black Adder episodes. Sunday I went with Jenn, Lisa and Ben to the Blue Man Group. That was a fucking blast. What an odd show. The music was fantastic and I laughed a lot. Ben Adrian called me when we got out of the show to tell me that his band, Replicator was playing over at the Prodigal Son. I had to pass. I felt too crummy. I went with the group up to a bar in Wrigglyville, but left after one game of pool. Lisa and I won. Heh. Ok. Back to work. Ta ta.

October 5th, 2002 08:25 hours CST currently listening to: "NYC" by Interpol

8:30 AM and I'm in the office. Bah.

Saw Red Dragon. It didn't spook me at all because it's freakishly accurate to the book. I knew how every scene was going to play out. Ralph Finnes was great. Edward Norton was great.

Rachel, where are you?

I finally got the right idea for Lisa's birthday. Now I just have to see if I can get it finished in time.

October 3rd, 2002 23:55 hours CST currently listening to: "Haunted Days" by Trembling Blue Stars

Lots to catch up on. My weekend with Jenn was very pleasant. She arrived on Thursday night, and we went almost immediately right back out the door. We stopped at Clarks for some food, then met up with Lisa, Michael, Krissy, Juan, Eddie and Josh at Spin. They do an 80's night there on Thursdays with no cover. $5 pitchers of MGD. It's a pretty sweet deal. Jenn and I went down to Neo first and the rest of the group followed later. It wasn't really my night for dancing, but Lisa got me out there for a few important songs.

Friday, Jenn and I went to Clarks again. This time for breakfast. We walked around Lakeview and Wriggleyville all day. Well, we started at noon, but whatever. I bought 8, freakin pairs of pants. Ragstock was a treasure trove. Although, 2 of the pairs that I bought I forgot to try on. They're a bit big. Crap. We went to dinner at Gino's east, then met up with Lisa at Delilah's. We three walked up Lincoln to the Elbow Room to see Emily sing backup for a country folk singer. She has a wonderful, bright, clear voice. I bet she and I could do some wicked harmonies together. Lisa and Jenn and I went back to Delilah's, which was now super packed. We went upstairs and just drank and blabbed about stuff.

Saturday I made F. Toast. Jenn and I stayed in for quite a while. We watched some South Park, Sex in the City and played GTA3 for quite a while. We went down to Wicker Park and sort of window shopped. We picked up Lisa and went up to Evanston to see Spirited Away. It was wonderful!!!!! And luckily, it was also in Japanese with English subtitles. That was a very pleasant surprise. There are so many things I loved about that movie.

Sunday was a fantastic band practice. Lisa and I nailed almost every song on the first try. It was truly amazing.

My class has been very educational. Active Directory has some mad cool features to it. Too bad we won't be utilizing even a fraction of them when we set our new servers up on Saturday. Speaking of which... I hope it doesn't take long. I brought one of my drum machines home so that I could work on Kiss Me Slowly before Sunday's practice rolls around. I have no idea why I'm awake right now. I just got back from seeing Azure Ray play a wonderful set over at Shuba's. We met one of the lead singers after the show who couldn't have been any nicer. It was a very good end to a relaxing evening. Well, it wasn't all relaxing. I made stir-dry tonight and completely fucked up the rice. Luckily Lisa found my one remaining package of Ramen and we used the noodles instead. It came out pretty cool. I was just a chef with two left hands, I guess. Ok. Off to bed.